Democrats Normalized The Same Political Violence That Torched PA Governor’s Mansion
Democrats devalue life and reward violence, but when the lines between right and wrong are blurred, our culture drifts into danger.Democrats devalue life and reward violence, but when the lines between right and wrong are blurred, our culture drifts into danger.Luigi Mangione waives right to extradition hearing, headed to New York to face charges
Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, on Thursday morning waived his right to an extradition hearing and was placed on a flight to New York to face charges, NBC News reported.
Mangione appeared in a Blair County, Pennsylvania, court Thursday morning for a preliminary hearing and to address extradition, NBC News said, adding that the hearing ended with the judge ordering that Mangione be taken into the custody of the New York City Police Department instead of returning to Huntingdon State Correctional Institution.
The New York Times, citing two law enforcement officials, reported that Mangione was found with a notebook that read, 'What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents.'
With that, Mangione — dressed in an orange jumpsuit — was placed in a black SUV, and around 10:40 a.m., an NYPD motorcade with Pennsylvania state police was seen at Altoona-Blair County Airport where Mangione was placed on a small plane, NBC News said.
The flight to New York took off about 10 minutes later, the news network said.
NBC News said Mangione is expected to make an initial appearance Thursday in federal court in lower Manhattan.
What's the background?
Surveillance video showed a figure walking up behind Thompson outside a Hilton hotel in Manhattan on the morning of Dec. 4 and shooting him. The suspected shooter reportedly used a bicycle to get away from the scene.
Bullet casings found at the shooting scene apparently were inscribed with words referring to health insurance claim denial tactics.
Just hours after the fatal shooting, Thompson's wife said her husband had been threatened. Paulette Thompson told NBC News in a phone call that "there had been some threats. Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him."
The day after the shooting, police released a still photo of the suspect showing his face — and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny later said that photo was a key element in capturing their suspect.
On the morning of Dec. 9, a McDonald's customer in Altoona, Pennsylvania — which is about two hours east of Pittsburgh — spotted Mangione, notified an employee, and soon police arrived to question him, the Associated Press reported.
Police indicated in a criminal complaint that they recognized Mangione as soon as he pulled down his mask at their request in the restaurant. When they asked Mangione if he'd been in New York City recently, police said he was quiet but started shaking.
Later Monday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters that Altoona police arrested Mangione on firearm charges and that he was believed to be “our person of interest." Manhattan prosecutors that night filed murder and other charges against the 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, the AP said.
'Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming'
The AP — citing a law enforcement official unauthorized to discuss the investigation publicly and who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity — said a three-page, handwritten document found in Mangione’s possession includes a line in which he claims to have acted alone.
“To the feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official who spoke with the AP.
The document also contains the following line, the AP reported: “I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
According to the New York Times, the 262-word "manifesto" also says that as UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalization has grown, American life expectancy has not — and it condemns companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”
Last week, police said Mangione's fingerprints match those found at the scene of Thompson's fatal shooting and that a notebook found on Mangione details plans for the shooting.
CNN, citing two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter, reported that Mangione's fingerprints and those collected at the shooting scene are a positive match. The New York Times, citing two law enforcement officials, reported that Mangione was found with a notebook that read, “What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents."
Mangione on Tuesday was indicted for Thompson's murder.
Anything else?
Mangione appears to have a legion of fans. NBC News said Mangione supporters were seen outside the Pennsylvania court house earlier Thursday with some carrying signs that read "Free Luigi."
President-elect Donald Trump condemned support for Mangione, calling it a "sickness."
Along those lines, Thompson's killing has sparked a wave of hatred for the health care industry and threats against corporate CEOs. Chicago police last week were investigating "Kill your CEO" graffiti spray-painted in white on multiple businesses in the city, WLS-TV reported.
WLS in a related report said a New York Police Department bulletin was issued Tuesday warning of increased risk for health care executives and the possibility of copycat perps.
The station, citing the bulletin, said online posts have listed the names and salaries of several health insurance executives, multiple "Wanted" flyers highlighting corporate executives have been posted throughout Manhattan, and social media users continue to celebrate Thompson's death.
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The strange deification of Luigi Mangione
As soon as the shocking video of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination on a New York City street went public, the left began turning the murderer into a folk hero. Before the shooter’s identity was even known, progressives celebrated the act, inventing fictional backstories to glorify the killing as a form of noble revenge.
Now that Luigi Mangione has been apprehended, late-night comedians are swooning over him and progressive fanatics are even tattooing his image on their bodies. The justification for this disturbing behavior is the claim of “obscene profits” made by corrupt health care companies. Yet these same progressives attacked anyone who questioned the COVID-19 vaccine while pharmaceutical companies made record profits.
Progressives may have cheered his alleged choice of target, but Mangione hardly fits the image of a working-class revolutionary.
The truth is darker: The left harbors a deep appetite for political violence and celebrates anyone who harms its perceived enemies.
From the start, Thompson’s murder stood out as bizarre. The video, which showed a calm and methodical killer shooting Thompson in the back, made it clear that this was no random street crime.
Authorities launched a manhunt that ended when customers recognized Mangione at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Police took him into custody without incident.
The fallout has been equally strange. The Altoona Police Department received death threats for arresting Mangione, and the McDonald’s location was flooded with negative online reviews. Meanwhile, false claims circulated online, including a fabricated story that UnitedHealthcare denied Mangione coverage for critical back surgery. Progressives seized on these narratives, desperately twisting the assassination to fit their political agenda.
Mangione had a broad online presence, but it did little to align him with any mainstream political movement. Far from being a desperate victim driven to violence, the alleged assassin came from a wealthy family, attended an elite private school, and earned an Ivy League diploma.
While Mangione harbored a deep hatred for the health care industry, he also appeared to have a general disdain for much of the modern world. Progressives may have cheered his alleged choice of target, but Mangione hardly fits the image of a working-class revolutionary spurred to action by dire circumstances — no matter how much the left wishes to believe otherwise.
Conservatives must recognize that one does not need to be a violent Marxist revolutionary to see that America’s health care system is broken. Americans pay exorbitant amounts for health care. Companies in the industry are often predatory, constantly looking for ways to cut costs and deny coverage.
The system itself is a bureaucratic nightmare, seemingly designed to frustrate patients into abandoning claims. Ballooning costs can destroy the financial future of anyone facing a medical emergency.
Government interference in the industry and the added strain caused by illegal immigration, as individuals use the system without contributing to it, are major contributors to this crisis. However, these factors alone cannot fully explain the disastrous state of health care in America.
People are angry for a reason. If conservatives dismiss their frustrations by labeling anyone who points out the problem a Marxist, they will make a grave error.
The problem isn’t a lack of legitimate reasons to be angry with the state of the health care industry. The problem is that progressives use these grievances as a thin pretext for political violence.
The left has no problem with health care corporations earning obscene profits when it serves a leftist agenda. During the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies pushed vaccines that failed to prevent infection or transmission and caused harm to some patients. These companies made record profits and were granted immunity from legal liability for any harm their products caused.
Progressives didn’t push back against these practices. Instead, they demonized anyone who questioned them. They tried to make vaccines mandatory, destroyed the careers of doctors who spoke out, censored medical facts, and smeared critics as science deniers.
When journalist Christopher Rufo exposed footage of hospital officials boasting about the profits from child transition surgeries — surgeries that make patients dependent for life — progressives ignored it. They didn’t turn on the health care establishment. Instead, they continued pushing for the mutilation of children and attacked anyone who opposed their gender jihad.
If conservatives resorted to violence against a doctor profiting from these surgeries or a pharmaceutical CEO earning money from faulty vaccines, the left would immediately label them deranged terrorists.
While real issues exist within the health care industry, the left holds no principled stance against providers or pharmaceutical companies profiting from misery. Progressives have no objection to corporations earning record profits or receiving legal protection after causing harm — as long as it serves their agenda.
For most on the left, morality boils down to hating whomever the media tells them to hate with no concern for applying a consistent standard.
When a deranged assassin shot at Donald Trump, celebrities told progressives to cheer — and they did. When the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was assassinated, celebrities once again signaled progressives to cheer — and they did.
It really is just that simple.
Luigi Mangione and 'magic bullet' medicine
Why did Luigi Mangione allegedly target UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?
The original consensus was something like: He had chronic back pain that surgery didn’t help (or even made worse) and that his insurance company wouldn’t pay to fix.
It’s possible the 'system' had a share in derailing Mangione’s life, but surely there are many other factors, including the belief that all pain requires treatment.
But apparently the surgery, which he had no problem paying for, was a success. On Reddit, he raved about it and even recommended it to others. There is no record of him complaining about back pain after the surgery.
We do have a record of Mangione complaining of other maladies: Lyme disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and brain fog — all relatively new conditions often regarded as having a psychosomatic component.
Chronic endless pain
I have a good understanding of this because I come from a family of doctors, and my mother is one of these chronic endless pain people. I also worked in Big Pharma branding for two years, as well as for other creepy, well-funded Silicon Valley health start-ups on the agency side.
Via these experiences, I have come to basically the same conclusion that RFK Jr. has. The American for-profit health/pharma system is the most evil single institution on earth. It's also the most powerful.
This should've become obvious during COVID, where it literally took over the world. It should also be obvious given that it currently has the power to mutilate our own children, sometimes against our will, and to addict them to expensive drugs they will have to take for a lifetime.
I'm dubious that what we're seeing with UnitedHealthcare and Luigi Mangione is the whole story, but I'm more interested in the glaring contradiction at the heart of the alleged killer’s motive, seemingly expressed in the message left on the shell casings: “Defend, deny, depose.”
Among Mangione’s online sympathizers, even those who don’t go so far as to applaud the assassination claim, believe there’s a coherent political message behind it. But that rests on a faulty assumption about pain: that it must always be "treated" via medicines and surgeries.
Physical diagnosis, spiritual condition
This assumption certainly benefits the pharma industry — the more patients with chronic and consistent pain, the better. The only limit is what their insurance is willing to pay. As rapacious as insurance companies may be, some claims actually should be denied.
It’s not uncommon to get a physical diagnosis for a spiritual condition. I've seen my mother go through this her entire life, always with some new pain somewhere or some all-encompassing bulls**t diagnosis like "fibromyalgia" that gives pharma open access to her insurance funds.
Literally millions of aging single women suffer from various versions of chronic pain. They have been told, not by insurance companies, but by pharma companies and the media, that this pain is the result of treatable illnesses. Yet, somehow the more profits are made, the more “treatable” new illnesses pop up in need of cures.
But when none of them work, which is actually a quite common occurrence, what exactly is an insurance company supposed to do? Just pay endless claims forever, knowing that nothing will work? Denying the claims at least communicates that it’s time to try something else besides paying pharma companies with perverse incentives.
Whose profit?
It’s true that companies like UnitedHealthcare shouldn't exist in the first place. Even Adam Smith, father of market capitalism, said specifically that certain products were too elastic to be handled by a market, and medicines would certainly fit that category. The fear surrounding a person's health, and the desperate reliance on authority, warps the market and creates a terrible potential for very deep, evil, and pervasive abuse.
This is exactly what has happened, and it's eaten the globe. But in this instance, it doesn’t seem that UnitedHealthcare's "profit motive" had much to do with Mangione’s struggles. Of course, Mangione’s alleged manifesto encourages us to see his motivations as purely political rather than personal. He is targeting the “parasites” to blame for America’s extremely expensive yet extremely ineffective health care system.
As a diagnosis of what needs to change, the manifesto, if you could even call it that, is unsatisfactory. It ignores the bad actors upstream of the insurance companies: the doctors who offer unnecessary surgeries for hundreds of thousands of dollars and the pharma companies that run commercials telling everyone that chronic pills are the solution to their chronic problems.
Bad pharma
It’s mind-boggling that such commercials are so prevalent. Pharma has become the single biggest advertiser in all media by a massive margin: It literally keeps the mainstream media alive. A culture that heavily restricts cigarette ads should ask itself why it gives free reign to legal international drug cartels to spread their sales pitches. What impact does that have on public health?
We saw the impact during COVID, where people abandoned family members to die because the TV told them to do so. And who was the TV being controlled by? Pfizer (pharma) and Fauci (public health). Not by the insurance companies who had to foot the bill.
It’s possible the “system” had a share in derailing Mangione’s life, but surely there are many other factors, including the belief that all pain requires treatment. Maybe in a less stubbornly secular society he would’ve been able to understand his suffering as a necessary — or at least inevitable — consequence of being alive. Maybe then a father would not have been murdered in cold blood.
But our society has no concept of beneficial pain. In fact, we’re obsessed with eliminating pain entirely. That’s why our medical ideal is to match cause and cure so precisely that one treatment can eradicate a disease with maximum efficiency — and without any collateral damage.
This power such treatments promise is so seductive that it’s easy to succumb to wishful thinking, if not outright delusion. It’s right there in the name we commonly use for them: magic bullets.
Alarm sounded over graffiti, flyers, online posts reacting to shooting death of health insurance company head
Police are investigating "Kill your CEO" graffiti spray-painted in white on multiple businesses over the weekend in Chicago, WLS-TV reported.
The vandalism comes after the targeted, fatal shooting last Wednesday of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in New York City, the station said.
'F*** him may he rest in piss.'
As you might guess, it wasn't an isolated case.
WLS in a related report said a New York Police Department bulletin was issued Tuesday warning of increased risk for health care executives and the possibility of copycat perps.
The station, citing the bulletin, said online posts have listed the names and salaries of several health insurance executives, multiple "Wanted" flyers highlighting corporate executives have been posted throughout Manhattan, and social media users continue to celebrate Thompson's death.
WLS said many social media posts have heralded shooting suspect Luigi Mangione as a "martyr" — and the NYPD encouraged companies to increase precautions and security for executives since Thompson's fatal shooting could "inspire a variety of extremists and grievance-driven malicious actors to violence."
According to the station, the NYPD bulletin said "both prior to and after the suspected perpetrator's identification and arrest, some online users across social media platforms reacted positively to the killing, encouraged future targeting of similar executives, and shared conspiracy theories regarding the shooting."
WLS said the bulletin called out a viral social media post listing the names and salaries of eight health insurance company CEOs and that some online users viewed it as "a hitlist and that CEOs should be afraid."
The station added that the "Wanted" posters in Manhattan showed images of corporate executives and bullet-shaped graphics warning, "UnitedHealthcare killed everyday people for the sake of profit. As a result Brian Thompson was denied his claim to life. Who will be denied next?" and "Wall Street CEOs Should Not Feel Safe, Deny, Defend, Depose." Bullet casings found at the scene of Thompson's killing in front of a Manhattan Hilton hotel apparently were inscribed with words such as "delay” and “deny" which reportedly refer to health insurance claim denial tactics.
WLS added that the bulletin also included examples of online users saying Thompson deserved to be murdered due to his role in the health insurance industry, such as: "My mom was denied chemo multiple times and suffered tremendously they missed her cancer for two years because she was constantly denied... she will have life altering damage because of it. F*** him may he rest in piss."
Blaze News previously reported that just hours after Thompson was fatally shot, controversial, polarizing former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz posted online, "And people wonder why we want these executives dead."
What's more, Lorenz doubled down on her comments, telling Piers Morgan of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" on Monday that she "felt, along with so many other Americans, joy" upon learning of Thompson's slaying.
Glenn Beck, co-founder of Blaze Media, wrote an op-ed the day after Thompson's death that his killing "highlights a rising tide of anti-institutional rage" and that we have a choice "about whether we will uphold the principles of justice or descend into chaos."
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Police say Luigi Mangione's fingerprints match those at shooting scene; notebook about shooting plans found on him: Reports
Police said murder suspect Luigi Mangione's fingerprints match those found at the scene of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson's fatal shooting in New York City last Wednesday — and a notebook found on Mangione details plans for the shooting.
CNN, citing two law enforcement officials briefed on the matter, reported that Mangione's fingerprints and those collected at the shooting scene are a positive match. CNN added that it's the first positive forensic match that investigators say directly ties Mangione to the crime scene. CNN added that it reached out to Mangione’s attorney for comment.
A handcuffed Mangione struggled with police as he arrived at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania for his extradition hearing Tuesday. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Mangione shouted, 'It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!'
The New York Times, citing two law enforcement officials, reported that Mangione was found with a notebook detailing plans for the shooting.
“What do you do? You wack the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention. It’s targeted, precise, and doesn’t risk innocents,” read one of the passages in the notebook, officials told the Times.
The Times added that CNN first reported the recovery of the notebook. CNN's report indicates investigators are examining the suspect’s writing in a spiral notebook that includes to-do lists to carry out a killing and notes justifying such plans, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the matter.
Manhattan prosecutors late Monday filed murder and other charges against Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, the Associated Press reported, citing an online court docket. The New York Times, citing court records, reported that the initial murder charge is for second-degree murder.
Mangione was captured Monday morning at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania — which is about two hours east of Pittsburgh — after a customer spotted him and notified an employee. Police soon arrived to question him.
Police indicated in a criminal complaint that they recognized Mangione as soon as he pulled down his mask at their request in the restaurant. When they asked Mangione if he'd been in New York City recently, police said he was quiet but started shaking. Police in Altoona charged him with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery, and providing false identification to police, the AP said.
Later Monday, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Mangione was believed to be “our person of interest."
The Times said Mangione — who was denied bail — is fighting extradition to New York.
A handcuffed Mangione struggled with police as he arrived at the Blair County Courthouse in Pennsylvania for his extradition hearing Tuesday. Dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit, Mangione shouted, “It’s completely out of touch and an insult to the intelligence of the American people and their lived experience!” You can view video here of that outburst.
'Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.'
The AP — citing a law enforcement official unauthorized to discuss the investigation publicly and who spoke with the outlet on the condition of anonymity — said a three-page, handwritten document found in Mangione’s possession includes a line in which he claims to have acted alone.
“To the feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone,” the document said, according to the official who spoke with the AP.
The document also contains the following line, the AP reported: “I do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
According to the Times, the 262-word "manifesto" also says that as UnitedHealthcare’s market capitalization has grown, American life expectancy has not — and it condemns companies that “continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it.”
Mangione reportedly had back surgery last year
The paper added that friends said Mangione lived with significant, sometimes debilitating, back pain, which prevented him from surfing and negatively affected his romantic life; he underwent surgery for it last year.
The Times said R.J. Martin — a friend of Mangione who had lived with him in Honolulu — asked via text how his surgery went, and Mangione replied, “Long story,” and did not elaborate.
“His spine was kind of misaligned,” Martin told the paper. “He said his lower vertebrae were almost like a half-inch off, and I think it pinched a nerve. Sometimes, he’d be doing well and other times not.”
Anything else?
Bullet casings found at the scene of Thompson's killing in front of a Manhattan Hilton hotel Wednesday — which New York City police called a "brazen" and "premeditated, preplanned targeted attack" — apparently were inscribed with words referring to health insurance claim denial tactics.
Just hours after the fatal shooting, Thompson's wife said her husband had been threatened. Paulette Thompson told NBC News in a phone call that "there had been some threats. Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage? I don’t know details. I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him."
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'Why the f*** are you laughing?' Piers Morgan unloads on Taylor Lorenz after she expresses 'joy' over CEO's execution
Former Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz frequently concern-mongers about theoretical harms, such as those supposedly generated by unmasked Americans "raw dogging the air." It appears that Lorenz's compassion runs dry in the face of real harm and tragedy.
After a masked man walked up and fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson Wednesday, Lorenz posted on the liberal X knockoff Bluesky an apparent justification for the killing of the father of two. Despite significant backlash, Lorenz then followed up with more controversial commentary, underscoring in a blog post titled "Why 'we' want insurance executives dead" that "it's normal" to wish death on executives in the health insurance sector.
Lorenz — a blogger who has peddled plenty of fake news, doxxed Libs of Tiktok in 2022, and called President Joe Biden a war criminal for supporting Israel's war on Hamas terrorists — doubled down on her comments Monday, telling Piers Morgan of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" that she "felt, along with so many other Americans, joy" upon learning of Thompson's slaying.
"Joy? Seriously?" said Morgan. "Joy at a man's execution?"
'It feels like justice in this system.'
Lorenz suggested that if not joy, then the feeling was "certainly not empathy."
"We're watching the footage. How can this make you joyful? This guy is a husband. He is a father," said Morgan. "And he has been gunned down in the middle of Manhattan."
Lorenz tried justifying her schadenfreude by accusing the deceased of committing mass murder, then broadening her smear by suggesting that tens of thousands of Americans "died because greedy health insurance executives like this one push policies of denying care."
"So should they all be killed, then?" responded Morgan, taking his guest's argument down the rails. "Would that make you even more joyful?"
Laughing, Lorenz said that the extermination of health insurance executives would not make her more joyful. The blogger suggested that the execution of the unarmed executive was, however, useful, stating, "It is a good thing that this murder has led to ... the media elites and politicians in this country paying attention to this issue for the first time."
Toward the end of the segment, Lorenz interrupted to clarify that she was not joyful about the slaughter but "celebratory."
"I take that back. 'Joyful' is the wrong word, Piers," said Lorenz. "Vindicated, celebratory — because it feels like justice in this system when somebody responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans suffers the same fate as those tens of thousands of Americans who he murdered."
'We should not necessarily go around shooting people in the street.'
Another guest on the show, conservative commentator Tomi Lahren, suggested that to "celebrate the murder of a husband and a father simply because you disagree with his position at a company, or you disagree with the company, or you disagree with the system of health care that we have in the U.S., is, quite frankly, sick, twisted, and disgusting."
"It also goes to show that the left and many on the left have a tendency to believe that violence like this, political violence, is necessary, it's a means to an end," continued Lahren.
A poll conducted by Scott Rasmussen's RMG Research for the Napolitan News Service in September highlighted this politically charged bloodlust on the left.
The survey asked, "While it is always difficult to wish ill of another human being, would America be better off if Donald Trump had been killed last weekend?" While 69% of respondents said no, a staggering 28% of Democrats answered "yes."
Lorenz appeared to chuckle while Lahren spoke, prompting a response from Morgan: "Taylor, I don't mean to be rude, but why the f*** are you laughing all the time? I don't get it. Sorry, apologies for my language, but honestly, I find it unbelievable."
The leftist blogger suggested that she found Lahren's characterization amusing, then noted, "I agree we should not necessarily go around shooting people in the street."
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'SNL' blasted for 'absolutely disgusting' jokes on 'Weekend Update' in relation to fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO
"Saturday Night Live" took a beating for "absolutely disgusting" jokes — as one commenter put it — on its latest "Weekend Update" segment in relation to the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week.
"Weekend Update" led its segment Saturday with jokes in connection with the fatal shooting in Manhattan.
'Disgusting. I couldn’t watch this segment. The victim’s family and friends are very much grieving right now.'
“This week, New York City officials sent a tough message on crime: ‘If you shoot somebody in the middle of the street, you better get on your bike, hop on a bus, and get the heck out of here, mister,’” co-host Colin Jost quipped to begin the segment — to quite a bit of laughter.
Jost continued: “The manhunt continues for the assassin who gunned down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on Wednesday, and it really says something about America that a guy was murdered in cold blood and the two main reactions were, ‘Yeah, well, health care stinks!’ And also, ‘Girl, that shooter hot.'”
Jost added with an incredulous giggle that the suspect "just bicycled away" after the shooting: "Probably because they have every cop in the city guarding our Christmas tree." The Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Plaza took place hours after the shooting.
“The NYPD now believes the suspect left the city on a bus from Port Authority," Jost also said. "Uh, thanks, but a Port Authority passenger who looks like a murderer actually widens the search."
With that, Michael Che took over and said, “New York City police say that they were able to get the smiling picture of the suspect after the man apparently was caught on camera at a local hostel flirting with a female employee, whose name has been reported as, ‘Lucky S. Bechalive.'"
Despite the consistent laughter the co-hosts' jokes elicited, a number of other folks didn't take kindly to their humor.
“Disgusting. I couldn’t watch this segment. The victim’s family and friends are very much grieving right now,” one observer wrote beneath a YouTube video of the segment, according to the New York Post.
“Agreed," another commenter responded, the Post noted. "I don’t usually watch SNL, and I can see by the segment and comments supporting it that I will no longer be watching it. Joking about someone’s murder like that is absolutely disgusting… a family is grieving right now."
The paper added that a X user wrote, “Classless."
You can view the "Weekend Update" segment here.
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